Scots nurse saved Palestinian child's life after 'bullet lodged in her neck' in Gaza

A Scottish nurse has been awarded an OBE after saving the life of a three-year-old Palestinian girl who had a bullet lodged in her neck.

Montrose-born medic David Anderson spent six months last year in war-torn Gaza as part of the UK Government’s humanitarian response.

He told of the dramatic moment he helped save the life of a young girl after a bullet lodged in her neck after it had ricocheted through her mother’s body.

David, who is the Disaster and Conflict Lead for Manchester-based frontline charity UK-Med, is being celebrated after receiving an OBE in the King’s New Year’s Honours List.

A Scots nurse is awarded an OBE after saving a Palestinian girl with a bullet in her neck. Kieran Seager/UK-Med

The 55-year-old admits the constant sound of bomb blasts almost feels now like “background noise”.

He said: “You see so many difficult or dramatic injuries – arms, legs, multiple amputations, quite a lot of cases where bullets have ripped through the abdomen.

“We treated a three-year-old girl with a bullet in her neck. The bullet had passed through the family’s makeshift tent, passed transversely through the mum’s hip and then breast before lodging itself in the neck of the child.

“It’s quite frankly a miracle they survived, and the bullet was lodged just millimetres from the little girl’s spinal cord.

“It took three hours of surgery to remove the bullet. It was only because it had gone through mum twice that the velocity had slowed sufficiently not to cause more serious damage to the child.”

The child, called Razan, is now making a full recovery after having the 7.92mm bullet removed.

David has previously responded to various humanitarian crises, including Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine and the world’s worst Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014.

He also played a key role in establishing two Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) funded emergency field hospitals – based in Al Mawasi and Deir El Balah – which have treated more than 350,000 patients.

The UK Government allocated £5.5m last year to UK-Med to fund their life-saving work in Gaza until April.

He said: “I’m shocked but also honoured to have received an OBE from the King in the New Year’s Honours list.

“It is also a reflection on the hard work and dedication of the whole team at UK-Med, both current and past, who support our work globally to ensure access to healthcare where it is most needed.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a deal to return Hamas-held hostages in the Gaza Strip has been reached.

The announcement early came a day after Netanyahu’s office said there were last-minute snags in talks to free hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Netanyahu said he would convene his security Cabinet on Friday and then the government to approve the ceasefire agreement.